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Month: May 2016

There are those who believe that Princess Diana’s death was not an accident. Conspiracy theories abound. There’s the belief that because she was associating with extremely powerful and wealthy Arabs, of whom the queen did not approve, she was assassinated. And there’s a belief that some nefarious Freemasonry cult used her as a symbolic sacrifice. If you need more detail on these conspiracies, you’ll have to google them. I read the former in a news magazine years ago and the latter came straight from someone’s mouth. I had a hard time understanding but it had something to do with the royal family and being named after the ancient goddess. I’m not one to randomly believe hearsay but I’ve always wondered what was the significance of Princess Diana’s name, so I read up on it.

The Greeks had a mythological goddess named Artemis. The Romans called her Diana. (Diana means goddess.) She was the daughter of Zeus and the sister of Apollo. She’s associated with hunting and you’ll see her with a bow and arrow. Diana… nature goddess… virgin goddess. And for women who worshipped her during childbirth, she was the moon-goddess. Artemis is even mentioned in the Bible and through the ages, who and what Artemis (Diana) was, grew distorted from the original Greek myth, even evoking human sacrifice. Thus the connection to the conspiracy that she was killed and that the tragic car accident in Paris was deliberate.

I believe it was William Somerset Maugham who wrote in one of his novels that we love someone because they bring us pleasure. That philosophy offers up possibilities besides the usual heart-thumping emotions we call love. If pleasure equals love, options could include loving someone for their wealth, their sexuality, their prestige, power, beauty… you name it. And who are we to judge?

There are plenty of historical records of black women cohabiting with white men and white women with black men. But I find myself asking… did blacks and whites during the Civil War Era truly love their partner of a different skin color? With the lack of freedom for blacks you really do have to ask. Was this relationship I see on paper, good old-fashioned love? The kind that makes your heart go… thump, thump, thump? Or was it coercion, comfort, security or freedom that the relationship provided?

After the war ended, Mississippi was so concerned that blacks and whites would have relationships, they stiffened the penalty to life in prison. But the historical records reveal that during the most dangerous times, mixed couples risked it all to be with the ones they loved.

The Ku-Klux-Klan was a secret political organization in the Southern United States that gained momentum during Reconstruction, after the Civil War. The group’s main mission was the establishment of white power. One thing the group made clear was that they did not want freed blacks to have any power. Due to bureaucratic red tape, some of the white Southerners were unable to vote after the war, while freed blacks were not only able to vote but were given positions in the government. Obviously, this freaked out the white status quo who went from dominating the blacks to watching them take jobs in the newly formed post-war administration.

Acceptance into the group was only open to white Protestants who were born in America. Today the Ku-Klux-Klan has morphed into other organizations but lately, refugee problems in Europe and fears of terrorism in the United States has brought white supremacy groups back into the news.

Suellen Ocean is the author of the series, Civil War Era Romances. Available here:

After the Civil War, the Ku-Klux-Klan set out to terrorize blacks. The structure of their group was modeled after college fraternities and they sought to have fun with their get-togethers but their antics were sinister and their motives were to drive the newly-freed blacks from the South. When reading about their hierarchy, it sounds like something out of a children’s fantasy book. But what they did, was not child’s play. They were deadly serious. The leader of the KKK was a general named Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was their “Grand Wizard.” He ruled over what they called their “Invisible Empire.” Invisible because it was cryptic and illegal. (They murdered blacks.) The next guy down was the “Grand Wizard,” he helped rule the South. Every state had its own realm and it was supervised by a “Grand Dragon.” The counties were called “dominions,” a “Grand Giant” ruled over the dominions. A “Grand Titan” ruled over the county. Smaller localities were called “dens,” and they were ruled by a “Grand Cyclops.” The members were called “Ghouls.”

Suellen Ocean is the author of the series, Civil War Era Romances. Available here: